sorry Shaun - you may have missed some of the earlier threads regarding teams & injuries, but NZ were far from being at full strength when they toured OZ. In fact NZs injury list prior to that tour was worse than Englands coming out of the Ashes.

Specifically on the OZ tour NZ lost Bell to poor form, O'Connor, Nash & Tuffey to injury, and Vettori & Cairns had yet to play a full tour since coming back from 2 prolonged injury spells. Of the NZ bowlers in the Perth Test from memory Martin was making his debut tour & Bond his Test debut along with Vincent as opening bat.

Bond's selection for that test was as the 2nd or 3rd replacement seamer for that Tour!

Yes NZ were being smashed in the weather effected first two tests & were 'saved' by the weather, but when the weather had no effect even leading into the match, on a pitch that is ideally suited to the Aussie attack, NZ out batted & out bowled a full strength Aussie lineup & should have had a victory had they had a bit more experience in how to close out a match, and had the ZIM ump done his job a bit better.

I think you have a slightly inflated opinion of Rikki Clarke (well, any opinion is inflated..) Read will never be able to match Gilchrist as a batsmen and whilst Solanki and McGrath have talent, they need to prove themselves internationally first.

And to consider teams' abilities without taking into account their mentalities is like considering a cyclist's chances of winning Le Tour without taking their climbing into account.

England a billion times better than India? Explain why the last series in England was drawn, then. I feel England are slightly above them - only slightly, mind - but aren't likely to win in India.

As for "Dravid has no-one to play with" - Ganguly averages more away than at home and as much as I dislike the guy, I respect him as someone who, with Wright, has transformed India into so much more of a unit. There's also a guy with the middle name "Ramesh", who's quite good.

And please don't pay any attention to the ICC's rankings, they're crap.

Originally posted by anzac sorry Shaun - you may have missed some of the earlier threads regarding teams & injuries, but NZ were far from being at full strength when they toured OZ. In fact NZs injury list prior to that tour was worse than Englands coming out of the Ashes.

I find that hard to believe.

Originally posted by anzac Specifically on the OZ tour NZ lost Bell to poor form, O'Connor, Nash & Tuffey to injury, and Vettori & Cairns had yet to play a full tour since coming back from 2 prolonged injury spells. Of the NZ bowlers in the Perth Test from memory Martin was making his debut tour & Bond his Test debut along with Vincent as opening bat.

And I would be right in my thoughts.

Flintoff, Giles, Gough, Jones, Silverwood, ...

Also bear in mind, 2 of those happened during the first innings, meaning we played with 10 men.

Re: India

Originally posted by Shawn Badyk And an Indian who had half a brain would say that England are a billion times better than India in Test cricket, if you want proof compare the results of the two teams over the past 2 decades.

Hmm.... I don't visit this website for a week and this is what happens....a crazy pom on the loose, and that too in OzLand.....

England is a billion times better then India, eh ?? I reckon, that means England should have thrashed India so bad the last time around, that the very thought of playing cricket again should have been scary for India.... but you won't happen to know what actually transpired when these two teams met the last time around, as probably you hadn't hatched out of the egg yet, I suppose.

USA

Some uneducated American tries to insult me but in the process he makes a fool out of himself. USA has as many players in their player base as all the Test playing nations, yet USA are hopeless in cricket and cannot even make the World Cup.

England are 2nd best in Test cricket, that is a fact.

South Africa have won in India, but I don't consider that an achievment, as India haven't won outside of India in 17 years and psychology is the only reason no one wins in India.

England have had Australia beat many times but lost due to lack of faith.

England had more injuries in the last Ashes series than New Zealand ever did in Australia. And England played with 10 men in the 1st Test, yet we still managed to score over 300 in the first innings, something New Zealand failed to do when they were in Brisbane. England also batted well in the 1st innings in Adelaide, and in Sydney were awesome. Perth was the only place England were humiliated. England made Australia fight in the Melbourne Test.

South Africa were miserable when they played in Australia, I expected them to maybe draw the series, but they were very dissapointing.

And England fielded a very young team in the Ashes, Australia had an experienced team and England were far more worn down than Australia were. England won the 5th Test match in style and we earnt the victory.

Some crazy American comes here thinking he is king of the world, your opinion means nothing so learn that.

Re: USA

So his opinion means nothing? Why? What makes us think your opinion counts for anything when you come here spouting absolute crap?

South Africans are arrogant? In my experiences they are the most friendly in the world... Your entitled to your opinion, but you had better take a long hard look at your own before having a dig at a load of people that have probably done nothing to you...